Star Trek Just Proved Section 31 Really Does Care About Canon
Rachel Garrett’s phaser is set to continuity.
When Michelle Yeoh returns as Philippa Georgiou in the new streaming movie Star Trek: Section 31, she’ll have a rag-tag crew on a new, super-secret spy mission. The upcoming movie recently revealed its release date at New York Comic-Con, but information about Section 31 is still fairly sparse. However, Paramount+ soon released a few more photos teasing the rest of Georgiou’s squad, including one very interesting image of Rachel Garrett, future captain of the USS Enterprise-C, played by Kacey Rohl in Section 31. While the trailer showed Garrett seemingly undercover, this new publicity shot has Garrett rocking a more Starfleet-ish getup, complete with a phaser in her holster.
And about that phaser! Although it's only partially visible, Garrett’s phaser in Section 31 is proof-positive that this new Trek rollercoaster action movie still very much cares about the canon. Because of where this movie takes place in the timeline, Garrett’s phaser actually looks fairly period-accurate, which, for very hardcore fans, should remind everyone of both The Wrath of Khan and TNG’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”
Rachel Garrett's timeline explained
Rachel Garrett, as played by Tricia O'Neil and Kacey Rohl in The Next Generation and Section 31.
Introduced in the TNG time-bending episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” Rachel Garrett (Tricia O’Neil) was the captain of the Enterprise-C, the Enterprise that preceded Picard’s Enterprise-D, whic was destroyed in 2344 during a Romulan attack. This means that Garrett was a captain in Starfleet roughly two decades before Picard’s captaincy, and therefore, as a younger woman, she would have been in Starfleet earlier in the 24th century, too.
This is the detail that the Section 31 movie is taking advantage of. Because Georgiou has emerged from the time travel portal of the Guardian of Forever and found herself in the early 24th century, most fans are guessing this movie is set in the 2320s or 2330s. Either way, Garrett would be a bit younger at this point in the timeline, and (probably) not yet the Captain of the Enterprise. (But then again, who knows? Picard was in command of the USS Stargazer for like two decades before the events of TNG.)
The point is, that Garrett’s age in Section 31 isn’t 100 percent clear right now, but that hardly matters. Ed Speleers is in his thirties in real life but played Jack Crusher in his twenties in Picard Season 3. Paul Wesley is in his forties and plays a “younger” James Kirk in Strange New Worlds. Garrett’s age, as portrayed by Rohl in Section 31, will be whatever it needs to be because this is science fiction. But, what’s more interesting for fans of Star Trek props and very specific canon things, is how cool Garrett’s phaser looks.
The wrath of Garrett’s phaser
Kirk rocking this same style of Phaser in The Wrath of Khan.
In the official Instagram post, it appears that Kacey Rohl is rocking a 1979-1982 style Starfleet phaser. First introduced in The Motion Picture, this style of phaser was seen more prominently in The Wrath of Khan, before being replaced by a different model in The Search for Spock. The thing is, this 23rd-century phaser appeared again in “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” and was prominently seen being worn by members of Garrett’s crew of the USS Enterprise-C. Meaning, that in the early 24th century, Starfleet folks were still using this style of phaser! For decades, fans have tried to track down versions of this original prop, meaning for certain folks, it's very iconic.
From what we can see of the phaser in Garrett’s holster here, it’s very clear that Section 31 is trying to get this one very, very small piece of continuity correct. For whatever reason, Starfleet had this style of phaser in service from the 2270s through the 2340s, which means that in the early 2300s of Section 31, Garrett would be rocking it, too.
It’s a very small, hair-splitting detail, but it’s one indication that as flexible as the Trek timeline is when it comes to some of the most iconic objects, the phasers are currently being set to deep-cut canon. Now, it remains to be seen if Section 31 has any more surprising Easter eggs. After all, it’s an unexplored part of the Trek saga and a very big universe.
